Massively OP’s Best of 2016 Awards: Most Likely to Flop in 2017 or Beyond

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Bree Royce
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Massively Overpowered’s end-of-the-year 2016 awards continue today with our award for Most Likely to Flop in 2017 or Beyond, which was awarded to Blade & Soul last year — and I’m happy to say that game defied the odds globally, though I suspect most of our readers have forgotten about it. This unpleasant category can encompass fringe MMOs as well as unlaunched games, and remember that “flop” can mean lots of things, from outright sunset to financial ruin to simply not living up to insane hype. And we don’t actually want anything to flop!

Don’t forget to cast your own vote in the just-for-fun reader poll at the very end!

The Massively OP staff pick for Most Likely to Flop in 2017 or Beyond is…

TIE: WILDSTAR & STAR CITIZEN

flop

Andrew Ross (@dengarsw): Although I backed it, I’m still not fully won over by Chronicles of Elyria. I trust Chris Roberts to know how to burn through money, but the CoE team is not only untested in this field, but I still feel like they don’t understand what’s gone on in the genre for the past decade, maybe more. They appeal to my pre-WoW MMO fan, but my modern gamer sensibilities are confused as heck about who gets excited over a MUD.

Brendan Drain (@nyphur): New World. I’m going to call this one nice and early and say that Amazon’s sandbox MMO New World that was revealed to be in development earlier this year is likely to flop. We already have several sandbox MMOs on the way that are significantly further along in development, so I suspect New World will languish in silence for the next few years and ultimately miss its window of opportunity to capture a large portion of the sandbox market. As an honourable mention, I suspect that RIFT may close its doors in 2017 due to poor financial viability.

Brianna Royce (@nbrianna, blog): I’m torn between Star Citizen and WildStar, and I could see Chronicles of Elyria too. I want Star Citizen to be spectacular, but it’s impossible not to be skeptical about its ability to live up to its own hype. I suppose I don’t really expect it to flop, but the bigger they are, they harder they fall. WildStar… how you doin’? Has NCsoft forgotten to shut you down? Again, I’m glad you’re alive, but we’ve seen your financials, so how are you doing it, cupcake? And Elyria has yet to convince me its PvP model has a prayer of working out as planned. No other MMORPG has pulled it off; why would it succeed where all others have failed? I’d love to be wrong on all three counts.

Eliot Lefebvre (@Eliot_Lefebvre, blog): Star Citizen. Is it another year in which Star Citizen has continued selling people the world (and expensive non-playable spaceships) without actually launching, thereby building expectations to the point that they could never actually be met? Yes, yes it is. So this vote hasn’t changed. (And if you think this time it’s going to be different, we got to see this playing out in microcosm with No Man’s Sky earlier in 2016.)

Justin Olivetti (@Sypster, blog): Dark and Light. Second chance or no, this game failed so hard the first time around that I can’t believe that players are going to want to give it another try, especially when you consider that the team is downscaling the “massively multiplayer” element.

Larry Everett (@Shaddoe, blog): I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Star Citizen cannot live up to the hype. There are so many systems in that game. The layers upon layers of complexity are amazing for the deep-diving player, but it’s the casuals who will ultimately decide if the game is a hit or a miss. And the game is far too complex to be the next big MMO.

MJ Guthrie (@MJ_Guthrie, blog): I hate to ever even think about this category. It is like wishing ill on a game, and I just can’t do that. If I had to give an answer, I would say that WildStar is the most likely to disappear. I say that because the game seems to already be fading into the background, soon to be lost to memory. I don’t get the feeling that anything other than a major development will bring it back to the surface of consciousness.

Tina Lauro Pollock (@purpletinabeans): I don’t even want to answer this question because it’s depressing! I have to reluctantly vote for WildStar here, simply because I don’t see what more can be done to engage the genre’s fans and get them into the game. It’s one of those titles that I always mean to get engrossed in because I enjoy the premise so much on paper, but I never do. I always feel as though there is something else that deserves my gaming time more and so it still sits on my hard drive gathering e-dust. The layoffs this year really don’t reassure me either, unfortunately.

Star Citizen and WildStar won our award for Most Likely to Flop in 2017 or Beyond. What’s your pick?

Reader poll: Which MMORPG is most likely to flop in 2017 or beyond?

  • WildStar (25%, 435 Votes)
  • Star Citizen (44%, 755 Votes)
  • Chronicles of Elyria (3%, 45 Votes)
  • New World (1%, 13 Votes)
  • RIFT (3%, 60 Votes)
  • Dark and Light (1%, 13 Votes)
  • Project Gorgon (1%, 10 Votes)
  • Albion Online (1%, 21 Votes)
  • The Exiled (1%, 9 Votes)
  • MapleStory 2 (1%, 11 Votes)
  • Peria Chronicles (0%, 3 Votes)
  • Bless (1%, 17 Votes)
  • Lost Ark (0%, 6 Votes)
  • Worlds Adrift (0%, 3 Votes)
  • Moonlight Blade (0%, 1 Votes)
  • Sea of Thieves (1%, 12 Votes)
  • Lineage Eternal (1%, 10 Votes)
  • Shroud of the Avatar (3%, 51 Votes)
  • Revelation Online (2%, 33 Votes)
  • One of the Darkfalls (1%, 19 Votes)
  • Hero's Song (3%, 43 Votes)
  • Shards Online (0%, 2 Votes)
  • Tree of Life (0%, 6 Votes)
  • Crowfall (2%, 34 Votes)
  • Camelot Unchained (1%, 24 Votes)
  • Pantheon (1%, 20 Votes)
  • Gloria Victis (1%, 10 Votes)
  • Nothing (1%, 19 Votes)
  • Something else (tell us in the comments, but try not to enjoy it) (2%, 31 Votes)

Total Voters: 1,716

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Poll options include all games nominated plus a selection of other games expected out in the relatively near future.

MOP’s 2016 AWARDS (SO FAR)
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